The Parallels beta includes a new feature, called Coherence, that hides the Windows desktop and allows you to run Windows apps in their own windows on your Mac desktop. The result is that you can intermingle all your Mac and Windows apps on the same desktop. I know what you're thinking: Disgusting! Unnatural!

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Trust me people, I felt weird about it, too, but after setting it up, I can tell you this much: Sometimes something that sounds so wrong can feel so right. Today I'll show you how to set up Coherence in Parallels and how to launch Windows apps directly from your Mac.

Since the current build of Parallels Desktop Beta is open to the public, you can install the beta and try out Coherence for free (always nice). But first thing's first - the screencast! Here's what Parallels with Coherence looks like.

So, how can you get your Mac to run this unholy marriage? Actually, it's quite easy.

Install Windows in Parallels

If this is the first time you've installed Parallels, you need to install a new Windows virtual machine. Rather than recounting the entire process, head over to my side-by-side Windows and Mac feature and start at "Install XP as a virtual machine". It's a simple process, so get installing if you need to. When you've installed Windows, be sure to re-install Parallels Tools by booting up Windows in Parallels and then going to Actions -> Install Parallels Tools. Done? Then get ready for the fun part. It's time to:

Set up Coherence

Now that you've got Parallels with Coherence mode installed and a working installation of Windows, it's time to tweak your installation for Coherence mode. None of these tweaks are necessary to run Coherence, but they'll help keep the line between Windows and your Mac pretty thin.

Set your Windows taskbar to Auto-hide by right-clicking the taskbar, selecting Properties, and checking "Auto-hide the taskbar".

Move your taskbar to a side of your screen away from your Mac's Dock. Stacking the taskbar on top of your dock (or even underneath the menubar) just doesn't work that well.

Set your Windows desktop wallpaper to match your Mac's. The easiest thing to do here is just set your desktop with as a solid color. The reason this is useful is that Coherence works by hiding your entire Windows desktop while creating a window that lets Windows apps peak through. When you drag these Windows around, you'll notice that your Windows desktop can bleed through around the edges during the move - unless you're using the same wallpaper, that is.

Turn off your Windows screensaver. Parallels is great at hiding your Windows desktop, but your screensaver is another story. The solution is simple enough, though - just disable your screensaver in Windows by right-clicking the desktop and selecting Properties -> Screen Saver, then choosing (None) from the drop-down menu.

At this point, if you haven't already, switch into Coherence mode by selecting View -> Coherence in the Parallels menubar. The Windows desktop should disappear, but you should still be able to launch apps from the start menu or using an app launcher like Launchy. Very cool.

Launch Windows apps directly from your Mac

Parallels does not (yet) support launching Windows apps from OS X. However, if you want to get this functionality, the VerySimple Dev blog has hacked together a Windows app called DockSync intended to work in conjunction with a Parallels shared folder. It's a fairly primitive app at this point that monitors Parallels shared folders for files ending with .task extensions. The .task files contain Windows command line actions. Short story shorter, you can script a command via Applescript or Terminal that will output a .task file to the shared folder. The .task file will be picked up by DockSync and executed at the Windows command line.

The advantage here is that with DockSync, you can do all of your launching from your Mac, meaning you're that much closer to erasing the line between the two operating systems (if that's the kind of thing you're going for). To get DockSync up and running, download and install it on your Windows virtual machine (it requires .NET 2.0), then just follow along with the Readme file inside (it's a very simple process). What's even cooler is that, since it's just executing command line actions, you can use it to do things like set up quicklaunch workspaces with batch scripts.

Seamless drag and drop between Mac and Windows

Oh, and as if Coherence wasn't badass enough, Parallels now has seamless drag and drop of files between Mac OS X and your virtual machine operating system. Both ways. Handy.

To be honest, now that I've set up Parallels using both Coherence and Fullscreen modes separately, I'm not sure which I'll use more. Since I like managing my desktop apps with VirtueDesktops, I may continue running in fullscreen mode a lot of the time just to keep things compartmentalized. (If you'd forgotten how well Parallels works with desktop switching, check out the video below).

On the other hand, there are plenty of times (drag and drop, for example) where using Windows in coherence with my Mac will come in very handy, particularly at those times when I just need to use that one Windows app. Either way, Coherence in Parallels is incredible, and should go a long ways towards boosting productivity for dual-OS users with Intel Macs. As I said, the beta linked to above is free to try out, but if you decide you do want to eventually purchase the app, it'll run about $80. If I didn't already have Parallels, I know what I'd be asking for this Christmas.

Adam Pash is an associate editor for Lifehacker whose needs aren't satisfied by one measly operating system. His special feature Hack Attack appears every Tuesday on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Hack Attack RSS feed to get new installments in your newsreader.